Applied Homogeneous Catalysis

Catalysis is a key-technology for future developments and for solving the challenges regarding limited resources, growing population, and environmental probems. Catalyst activity, selectivity and the recycling of homogeneous catalysts are essential features that have to be addressed for a successful application.

The research program of the Homogeneous Catalysis group addresses these questions, aiming at a deeper understanding of the relation between catalyst structure and its performance. Better utilization of raw materials and energy and avoiding the formation of undesired byproducts and hence of waste are relevant targets. In this way catalysis gives an important contribution to the development of sustainable technologies and environmentally benign processes. This is a major socioeconomic contribution of research in this field.

Attempting to integrate the different fields of catalysis, we address the problem of catalyst immobilization and recycling, searching for new approaches. The application of soluble nano-sized support materials in combination with membrane technology plays an important role in this research but also the use of improved and new multiphase approaches is addressed.

Ligand design and molecular modeling are combined with automated and parallel synthesis and testing. For an efficient rapid testing, fast (in situ) analysis techniques are applied and modified or adopted for our specific needs.

Homogeneous catalysis with an industrial orientation is a highly interdisciplinary field, related to a range of scientific and technological disciplines. In this way, we realize the idea of the Chain of Knowledge. The different projects in this group are in practice cross-linked to each other in order to make an optimal use of existing knowledge.

At present the research activities of the Homogeneous Catalysis group can be divided into three subprograms: